Chapter 16
The next morning Aiden arrived in the office earlier than usual, and before switching on his computer, he flicked through the notes that Tallulah had left him. It looked like they were on the right track. It was an old trick and obvious once they knew what to look for. The instigators must have thought they were dealing with a bunch of fools. Aiden sighed and leaned back in his chair, thinking about the senior management team. Perhaps I should just get the auditors in now.
He sat back, considering. Maybe next week’s soon enough.
Tallulah had been right when she told him he should look for the culprits. Now they knew what had been done, it shouldn’t be too hard, and it would be more exciting than the routine work he had to do. With any luck, it would stop him going cross-eyed with boredom. He closed the file and pushed himself out of his chair as he heard the outer door swing closed. He leaned round the door. Tallulah stood behind her desk, logging into her work station. She flushed slightly as she met his eyes.
“How are you? Did you sort things out with your brother?”
“We’re fine.”
Her eyes widened as he came around her desk. “What are you—”
He picked her up and sat her on the surface of the desk before kissing her. Her hands clutched at his shoulders, curling into the cotton of his shirt, as she kissed him back. She smelled of honeysuckle.
After a moment, she slid her hands down his chest and pushed him away. “You can’t do this at work.” She picked up the kettle and headed for the door. “I’ll make coffee.”
She was wearing wide, white trousers with thin blue vertical stripes, a blue camisole and a light turquoise ballet cardigan. Her hair was pulled back into a loose braid that hung down her back, and the thin cotton of the trousers clung to her hips, billowing around her legs as she headed out of the door.
He sat on the corner of her desk and waited for her to return.
“Haven’t you any work to do?” She plugged the kettle in without looking at him and spooned coffee into the pot.
“I’ve a bit,” he said, “but I wanted to talk to you about the financial reports.”
“What about them? Have you looked at the stuff I did last night, already?”
“I was in pretty early, and I’ve skimmed through the lot. It looks like my father was right,” he said. “I really thought he was paranoid. I’ll call the auditors on Monday, but I’d like to find the culprit myself.”
The kettle boiled, and Tallulah poured hot water onto the ground coffee. “How are you going to do that?”
“There must be an email trail.” Aiden joined Tallulah at the counter. “I’m going down to talk to the head of IT. He’s not in until nine o’clock, so I’ve time for coffee.”
Tallulah poured into the coffee mugs and handed him one, before adding milk to hers. She sat behind her desk and sipped at her drink.
“So, you’re going to look through company emails from the last couple of years?” Tallulah put her cup down. “It’ll take forever.”
“You’ll help, won’t you? Overtime rates?”
She laughed. “I sound mercenary even to myself.”
“Charge what you’re worth,” Aiden said. “They teach you that on MBAs. Actually, that’s not quite true. They tell you to charge as much as you can get.”
“I need a pay rise.” Tallulah’s eyes sparkled with laughter. “What do you want me to do? Go through half of the emails?”
“I think this has to come from management,” Aiden said. “It has to be someone in the financial structure of the company, so we’ll start there. We can narrow the dates to a week either side of the costings and completion and just go through the lot.”
“Right.” Tallulah picked up her coffee again and gave him a look that said, “So what are you still doing here?”
He pushed himself off the edge of her desk, leaned forward, wrapped his hand round her braid, and kissed her.
She gave him a ‘rabbit in the headlights’ look and shoved him away, her full lips flattening into a straight line. “Stop it. Remember what I said about work?”
At lunchtime, Sasha turned up again, this time finding her own way up to the seventh floor.
He sighed with exasperation when she walked straight into his office, perfectly dressed in pink gingham capris and a fuchsia-coloured wrap-round cardigan. He thought he’d been fairly clear the night before. He glanced at his watch. It was twelve o’clock.
“I’ve come to take you to lunch.” She removed her movie-star sunglasses and smouldered at him.
Aiden glanced past her, through the open door, to Tallulah, who raised both eyebrows as high as they would go. “I can’t really spare the time. I’m drowning in paperwork, here, and—”
“You can spare the time to eat.” Sasha tapped the toe of one high-heeled mule on the floor. “You’ll get more done this afternoon if you take a lunch break.”
“But I—”
“And you don’t want to end up the same way as your father,” she added.
Aiden closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. She’d always been persistent to the point of annoyance. It was a trait that had paid dividends in her career. How come I never noticed how bossy she was, he wondered, and why did it never bother me before? He opened his eyes again. She was still standing in front of his desk.
He picked up his jacket thoughtfully. Maybe I need to be firmer, to get this over quickly. Sasha isn’t going to go away without considerable encouragement. He hoped things weren’t going to get unpleasant.
“Tallulah?”
She gave him an expressionless look, the sort of look that said he’d better have a good explanation for this.
“I’ll be out of the office for an hour if anyone needs to speak to me. I’ll be back by one thirty at the latest.”
“Okay.” She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. “Remember you’ve the two o’clock meeting.”
He nodded as Sasha threaded her arm through his and led him from the office. The skin on the back of his neck prickled as he imagined the sort of death-glare Tallulah must be giving him.
He suggested they have lunch in a small Italian sandwich shop around the corner from the office and guided Sasha into a quiet corner booth with bench seats.
“Slumming it, aren’t you?” She glanced around the small room with its crowd of office workers clustered in front of the counter.
Aiden shrugged. “It’s convenient, and I’m pretty busy. Haven’t you started work yet?”
Sasha was a workaholic; once she was involved in a project, she wouldn’t dream of taking long lunch breaks. If she’d already been working, he bet she wouldn’t have wasted her energy on him.
“I start next week,” she said. “I’ve been settling into the flat and exploring London. I’ve a few colleagues and friends here.”
“Where are you living?”
“A company flat in Kensington. Small, but it’s a nice area. You must come around for a meal.”
Aiden picked up his panini and took a bite.
“I thought we should get things settled before I start work properly,” she said. “I’m sorry I was so aggressive before you left New York, but I had a moment of panic when I realised everyone else was settling down. I thought I’d be left behind.”
“So—”
“I felt strongly about what I was saying,” she interrupted. “Not the marriage and children bit, or not really. The commitment’s important though. We’ve been together three years, so I think it’s time.”
She had been more than aggressive; she’d been scary. Aiden opened his mouth to say so but, in the name of peace, reconsidered.
“Aiden?” She leaned across the table and grabbed his hand. “I decided it’s more important to me that we’re together than that we’re married. I just wanted some token of commitment. My insecurities came out big time.” She shrugged and gave him a seductive smile.
Insecurities? Aiden would be seriously surprised to discover that Sasha had any insecurities. What do I know? he thought. I can’t ever have really known her. Her behaviour had taken him completely by surprise. He pulled his hand free.
“Well?” She shifted impatiently.
“There’s someone else.”
She stared at him, her perfectly painted lips hanging slightly open in astonishment. “Already?”
“It was a coup de foudre,” he said with a shrug. He tried to look embarrassed.
“A what?”
“An arrow from Cupid’s bow,” he explained.
“I know what a coup de foudre is,” Sasha said. Her expression suggested she thought he’d gone mad. “I just have difficulty applying it to you.”
“Shows you don’t know me as well as you thought you did.” Aiden spread his hands in a gesture of incomprehension. “Although I surprised myself too.”
“Who is she?” Sasha looked interested rather than upset or angry. She was a strange woman.
“Tinkerbelle.” Aiden had to scramble to come up with a name. “My new assistant.” Tallulah was a helpful sort of person. She’d understand. He was almost sure she would.
“The girl in your office?” Sasha’s eyes widened. “You can’t be serious. Tinkerbelle? You’re in love with a girl called Tinkerbelle?”
“Why not?” Aiden forced annoyance into his voice. “You don’t think I can be sure so soon? You don’t—”
Sasha sat back and folded her arms. “She’s not your type. Not at all. You’re making a big mistake.”
“How would you know?”
“I’d know better than anyone else,” she said. “I was your type for three years.”
“Maybe.” Aiden spread his hands again. “Who knows how these things happen? And when it came down to it, we didn’t last, did we? Anyway, I looked at her and it just happened.”
Sasha widened her eyes at him. “I think it’s an aberration. I think you’re having an early mid-life crisis. I’m not going to give up on you. You’ll get past this. It’s my duty—”
“We’re going to be married.” Will she never give up? If she was really in love with him, she’d be upset, not analytical. “Anyway, I’m not old enough to have a mid-life crisis.”
“What?” Her voice rose into a squeak. He’d never heard that note from her before.
“I’m not old—”
“Not that.” She leaned back in her seat. “You’re getting married. I don’t believe it.”
“I know,” he said, avoiding her eyes. “I’ve never felt the urge to tie myself down before. That’s how I know this is the real thing.”
“You have no idea how much that insults me.” Sasha glared at him with a mixture of shock and irritation. “We were together three years, and now, after a month . . . When is this wedding going to take place? Have you set a date?”
“Not yet.” He shook his head. “She doesn’t believe I’m serious. She says it’s too soon. I had to beg her to agree to an engagement.”
“She might be right. She sounds like she’s got more sense than you,” Sasha said. “What do your parents think?”
“I haven’t told them yet.”
“Maybe you should step back and reconsider?”
Sasha was definitely bossy.
“No.” Aiden leaned forward, beginning to enjoy the story he was spinning. “I need to see a ring on her finger. I need everyone to know she’s mine. I need to know she’s mine. I need—”
“You need therapy.” Sasha stood up. “Poor woman. I’m sorry we had to end this way. I’m sure we could have made it work, but maybe you’re right. I should look for someone who wants the same things as me.” She held out her hand.
Aiden instinctively shook it.
“I hope we can still be friends.” She placed her sunglasses back on her nose.
“I hope so too,” he said. It hadn’t played out the way he’d expected. Sasha was almost business-like.
“Tinkerbelle?” She shook her head in complete disbelief.
The two of them walked back to the office where she followed Aiden to his desk, picked up her things, and turned to him. “I never congratulated you. I think you’re mad, but congratulations anyway.”
She nodded to Tallulah as she left. “I don’t understand it at all, but I wish you the best. Tinkerbelle?” She shook her head.
Tallulah stared after her with intense suspicion written all over her face. “What was she on about? Why did she call me Tinkerbelle?”
Aiden lifted one shoulder in dismissal. “No idea. She’s always been a bit odd.” He closed his door before Tallulah could say anything else. Hopefully that would be the end of Sasha, at least until she decided she could do better than him.
He was just about to leave for his two o’clock meeting when Francesca rushed into his office.
“What’s going on?” She folded her arms and rested one hip on the side of his desk. “Sasha came to see me. Is it true?”
“Is what true?” Aiden scooped up a pile of papers he didn’t need. “You can’t believe everything Sasha says.”
She followed him to the outer office where Tallulah’s desk was conspicuously empty. She must have gone out to lunch, Aiden thought with a feeling of relief. What have I done?
“About you and your assistant,” Francesca said. “Engaged? Seriously? To a girl named Tinkerbelle? Someone you’ve known for a month?”
“She’s not called Tinkerbelle, and I don’t—” Aiden dodged round her and ran for the door.
“How long have you really known her? Have I met her?” Francesca followed him into the corridor.
“How should I know?” Aiden paused in front of the door to the conference room. “I’m sorry, Fran. I’ve an important meeting I need to go to. I’ll talk to you later.” He slid round the door, closing it firmly behind him. How do I get out of this? It had seemed like such a good idea at the time. Maybe it’s just as well I’ve never stretched my creative talents before.
Becoming aware of the men staring at him, he muttered an apology for his lateness and took his seat at the table. Everyone stared at the pile of papers he placed in front of him, but he smiled as inscrutably as he could manage and listened in silence to an extremely boring presentation about a difficult planning application.
He hoped Francesca would forget about it. She didn’t know Sasha that well, and as far as she knew, the other woman might live in a fantasy world. Yes, and Francesca might grow wings and run her own commuter service to San Diego.
Unfortunately for Aiden’s peace of mind, Tallulah was waiting for him when he returned to the office.
“What the hell is going on?” She leaned back in her chair and glared at him. She didn’t look at all pleased to hear that she was engaged. If that was what she’d heard and if that was the thing that was bothering her.
“What do you mean?” He tried to sound innocent.
“Why has your sister been in to see me? Why did she congratulate me on my engagement? And why did she call me Tinkerbelle?”
“What engagement?” Aiden smiled guilelessly. “Who are you engaged to? Should I add my congratulations?”
“Don’t mess with me.” She rose to her feet and jabbed her forefinger at him. “That might work with some people, but I’ve got your number.”
“What?”
Tallulah folded her arms. “I told her I had no idea what she was talking about, and she told me not to be coy. We hit it off very well. Not.”
Aiden swallowed the bubble of laughter rising in his throat and turned it into a cough. “I might have said something to Sasha.”
“Something?”
“I was a bit vague,” he said. It was only a slight understatement. “I was trying to dissuade her, discourage her. She wanted to marry me and have my babies. I wasn’t so keen, but she was a bit persistent. I was trapped. I had to say something.”
“Hmm.” Tallulah picked up her coffee cup and sipped from it while she eyed him over the rim. “What did you say?”
“That I’d fallen in love with someone else. That—”
“Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
“She just wouldn’t give up. She said she had to save me from myself, so I told her I was going to get married.”
“To me? You’d better put her right then. Before she spreads the good news around the entire company.” Tallulah put her cup down and folded her arms again, while her stare turned combative.
“Best keep quiet,” he said. “Then the rumours will die down by themselves.”
“In your dreams.”
He couldn’t contain his laughter.
“You think this is funny?”
She looked as though she wanted to throw her coffee at him, so he retreated into his office and closed the door. The only positive thing about the day was that Sasha appeared to have given up on him with a surprising lack of acrimony. She was weird, and it was odd he hadn’t noticed that earlier. Three years? Where was my brain? He must have been blinded by her beauty.